Ethics office blasts Trump refusal to disclose lobby waivers

The back-and-forth follows a request Shaub made in late April that agency heads share with his office waivers that the Trump administration has issued to its ethics policies concerning lobbyists.

In his two terms as president, Obama granted waivers to 66 White House and administration employees, according to what the Office of Government Ethics posted on its website.

Waivers continue under the Trump administration, but the extent of them is unknown because his executive actions on ethics do not include provisions for public disclosure or information-sharing with OGE.

While each administration has the authority to grant waivers, there should be some central repository for the public to learn when an employee has been granted one, said Sean Moulton, the open government program manager at the Project on Government Oversight in Washington.

Democratic lawmakers also seized on the White House's desire to keep ethics waivers private — in such a way that seemed to channel Grassley circa 2009.

Shaub wrote in his letter Monday to Mulvaney that it was Grassley's letter that prompted his office to develop a policy of posting ethics waivers for the Obama administration.